Friday, December 23, 2011

DCnU Capsule Reviews, Week 15

This will be my final month reviewing all of the DCnU titles, and here are this week's books:

Batman #4: After the explosive opening there are a lot of talky info-dump bits, and Capullo makes all of it interesting to look at. Rating: 3.5 (of 5).

Birds of Prey #4: Fails on a basic story-telling level, impossible to follow what is going on. A big mess, below the level of competency that should be expected from a mainstream publisher. Rating: 1.5 (of 5).

Blue Beetle #4: A gun-toting robot gorillas on the cover can cover for a lot of sins, but these graphic shock last-page endings are getting really old and at this point are not as shocking as DC wants them to be. If fact, the only surprising thing is that they are still doing them. Still: robot gorilla. Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Captain Atom #4: Doesn't fail on the level of Birds of Prey, but it's not very well told either. We're done here. Rating: 2 (of 5).

Catwoman #4: So far, every even issue has been somewhat palatable, while every odd issue has bordered on crap. So while this was okay, I won't bother sticking around for issue five. Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

DC Universe Presents #4: Existentialism light for the super-hero set, but the amusement park setting livens up what could have been twenty pages of boring talky bits. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Green Lantern Corps #4: Really? Another character getting his head graphically blown up? Is there some kind of weekly quota for this crap in the DCnU? Rating: 2 (of 5).

Justice League #4: Plot moving slowly, while Jim Lee's art seems rushed. And really, I want better from my Justice League than to have them sniping at each other like teenagers with chips on their shoulders. Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Legion of Super-Heroes #4: It looks like Levitz is finally settling into his a-b-c plot formula, which was so successful back in the 80s. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Nightwing #4: Okay, I know the book is called "Night"wing, but maybe someone could turn on a light every once in a while so that we can get scenes lit in colors other that dark blue and black? Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Red Hood and the Outlaws #4: Guess what? Someone gets shot in the head, which then explodes. Stop me if you've seen this before. Rating: 2 (of 5).

Supergirl #4: A little too dark for my tastes for a Supergirl comic. Let's lighten things up a bit, okay? (And I mean story as well as the art/coloring). Rating: 2.5 (of 5).

Wonder Woman #4: I'd like for Wonder Woman to do a bit more wonderful stuff, and a bit less of the Gods moping around. Rating: 3 (of 5).

Ratings compared to the third issues: 1 improved; 5 stayed the same; 7 were worse.